Is there any way I can turn on and flag myself as a total noobie? Everyone I meet has been very helpful but I first they don't realize I know hardly anything. Last time I played a guy had to help me with my description because it was broken up into a bunch of sentences. That is how newbie I am. I just want to flag myself so people know. Amen for me not being lvl 11 yet because I am sure I will be PKed. Oh and I love this game I am just trying to get my feet wet.

Yes I read just about all the tips on this site and the game guide. I use the help and newbie channel but still am struggling. Any tips?

Folks who have been around a while will probably be able to tell within a few minutes that you are a newbie, with or without a visible flag. And the vast majority of them will go out of their way to provide you with whatever help they can, as long as it is within the limits of their character's role. Everyone who has ever played this game has been a newbie at one point in time, so believe me when I tell you that you are in good company. Use the newbie channel, ask questions in character, roleplay and enjoy yourself.

As an aside, I fully endorse incognito's statement below regarding extended periods of inactivity. This is extraordinarily frustrating for both mortals and Imms (mostly because we are impatient SOBs!). If you need a bit of extra time to review a helpfile or figure out the context of a certain command you are trying to use, that is just fine, but please preface this time of inactivity with a quick 'Please give me a moment.' This will go a long way towards mollifying your impatient veteran groupmates.

By the way, once you've played three or four characters into the mid 30s, or have heroed a character, you're no longer a newbie. Now you're the experienced player helping out the newbies!

Sadly, there are a few players who would be more likely to attack you seeing you as easy pickings.

It also makes for proper RP for some characters (i.e. evil). Hence probably not the best idea to play evil until you get the hang of the game. It's the risk you take in a PK-focused game, but I've found most people to either be indifferent towards me or helpful. Haven't (yet) been newbie-smacked. :)

The main thing is everyone is giving me free gear...and how do I reward them....with my stupidity of not knowing what I am doing. I guess I just feel bad about it but everyone seems to be very understanding.

If they're giving you gear, I'd be willing to bet that they don't need it *at all*, and are doing it so you're a stronger groupmate. So don't sweat that, just think about what your CHARACTER would do. If you're a conscience-bound paladin, for example, you could insist on paying them back someday, give the eq back when the fighting is done, let their generosity inspire you to be the most humble paragon of charity Thera's ever seen, etc. etc. etc. Don't worry about how you, the player feel about it. Oftimes, you'll hear on death/deletion how a player hated to do a certain thing to another character, but they HAD to, since it wouldn't have made sense for their character to give mercy, not loot, etc etc etc.

So the best thing to do is to pay attention to where people take you, pay attention to what they're wearing, which skills/spells they're using to fight creatures vs fight players. Eventually you'll learn (slowly) how to walk places, and (eventually) you'll be able to gather your own gear, instead of relying on charity (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). One thing that could be a goldmine for you is to ask questions IN THE GAME. Might not work if you're a haughty, know-it-all elf, but if you're willing to eat some humble pie or play stupid, you can ask endless questions: "I saw some dwarf toting an axe with an opal blade, and I wanted one, but didn't have the chance to steal it. Know where I can get one?" ad nauseum. If you start annoying your groupmates, they'll probably let you know, and you can cool it. But seriously, one of the best ways is to get over the awkward shy stage and ask as many questions as you want/can.

Then, for PK, studying up on other classes skills/spells and capabilities will help. Then, finally, once you get enough levels, just start walking around and finding stuff. You'll probably get killed lots of times by crazy monsters, and find many death traps, but it'll be worth it in the long run if you keep your eyes and mind sharp, because you'll know where NOT to go... but you're a newbie, right? You don't care if you lose your crappy stuff... then you'll probably find some nice stuff, and always know where to get it.

And don't run around with brief descriptions on, except on the Eastern Road, perhaps. Look at everything when you're exploring. You can look at, and interact with lots of things that are in a room description, so it really pays to read and react as your character.

React to things like your character would. Perhaps he used to be a beggar, and almost died on the streets. Does he give beggars money and food? Does he mercy-kill them? Does he kill them to escape the painful memories? Has he totally forgotten that part of his life? Your character is as complex as you care for them to be.

I'm a great pedant, aren't I? That's enough for now, I guess. Oh, if you don't have detect invis from your class, find a potion/pill/staff that will give it to you, watch out for assassins and thieves, and always, always, always, always, always, always type who pk and where. And watch out for those Imperials ;)

PS- Don't be a dark-elf necromancer (they're really, really, really fragile. So you die LOTS. And that's frustrating) Best bet is to be something that's hardy, able to hide, and has a low xp penalty so it has a smaller pk range (ie. less people able to attack you)
Arial (and human, half-elf) assassins are very survivable and popular, human rangers, and HUMAN BARDS are all *great*. If you're hell bent on being a mage, everybody *loves* transmuters, if you're hell-bent on an empowerment class, paladins are super tough. But I'd stick with the assassins/rangers/bards.

If it is the case, I'm helping you -because- I can tell you are totally new. If you seemed like a veteran, I'd actually be fairly likely to backstab you with my current character.

As far as descriptions go, I would have given a better explanation but I was desperately trying to rank up to hang on to a piece of nice gear that fell into my hands, so I just explained how to put a sentence in, and said something about you can add more lines in the same way and remove them using desc -. (Normally I wouldn't go ooc like this but then someone doesn't know how to grouptell etc I decided it was probably better to explain clearly.)

My advice is to not worry too much about armor (because you will die a lot and lose it, but it can also come back to you quite quickly via allies like myself if they have spares). Also, and this is quite important, if you are who I think, you can't spend so much time doing nothing. As in, if someone asks you to follow them, you need to do it within a few seconds, not take several minutes. If someone asks you a question, you need to answer within seconds, not in minutes, unless something else is more important. I am nice to newbies, but that tests my patience to the extent I'm tempted to just abandon you.

Its how a lot of us feel.